Montreal supported the Expos just fine until several years of incompetence followed by a few years of active destruction crushed that support.

Actually, the last year that the Expos were in the top half of the NL in attendance was 1983, and that 5 year stretch (1979-1983) proved to be their best drawing years in terms of attendance. Beyond 1987, they settled into the bottom 3rd of the NL and never left until they moved to DC. Even after they moved into Stade Olympique in 1977, their attendance didn’t significantly improve until the ‘boom’ years.

That’s the thing that I think is getting overblown in the whole “Strasburg Chase” coverage – history says he’s not likely to end up going #1 overall anyway. The best prospect the summer before rarely ends up going #1.

Here’s the thing though, Strasburg may have been last year’s “flavor of the day” based upon how scouts dream, but he went on to do this after taking on the “mantle”: 97 IP, HR/9: 0.09, BB/9:1.48; K/9: 12.30, K/BB: 8.30.

It’s tough to see how someone else could’ve surpassed that. It’s kind of like well, LSU had a great night in Auburn last week but really, USC isn’t sweating their #1 rank.

If the 2 stooges in the front office aren’t gone at the end of this debacle we are going to be toast for years to come.

The Lions finally fired Millen today so keep hope alive.

The excuse for drafting Fields was that he was the most major league ready of the players available. What good does that do, they’ve wasted a whole year of his career already.

some think that Fields & Boras’ have wasted this first year of his career ….

so far, field manager names brought up: Davey Johnson, Buck Showalter (’cause they’d bring some fire to this team) and GM? Bill Krueger (he has a financial background, and every time he’s on the pregame, he shows he knows what this team needs)

oh, and the guy who thinks they should go get Tim Lincecum for the pitching staff.

If the Mariners had left for Florida, people would have said the same thing about Seattle’s attendance. Montreal was a major league city, and they got royally shafted by Jeffrey Loria and Bud Selig.

Right, like that’s gonna happen…

One thing DC brings to games that Montreal didnÂ’t: fans in the seats.

Not really, though. They actually have fewer fans listening on the radio and watching on TV than attending in person. Nats’ ratings are abysmal. Honestly, fewer than 10,000 per game watch on TV, and fewer than 20,000 listen on radio.

Which leads me to believe that once the shine wears off the new stadium, deeper fan support won’t be there.